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He's a cousin of Rod. ?

I’m completely new to the community but how invested everyone appears to be. Such a well of knowledge here and appreciation for the SME’s who I see scattered through each topic. I’ve learned so much (lol)

So as someone who never wins anything when it comes to drawings or raffles I received this email from Royal today while I was out and about. Super excited to see where they are going to assign me and trying to figure out logistics of making it onboard! I would love to hear if anyone else has received anything or even further details. I know one of the test cruises is on Wednesday.

You have no inherent right anywhere to board a privately owned cruise ship. Typically "discrimination" extends to religious and disability related reasoning. There's also the elements of employment law/equal opportunity law that defines discrimination in those settings involving things like race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Most of the states trying to make vaccination status some sort of protected class are going to face uphill battles because of the nature of a pandemic and the requirement of vaccination for health and safety reasons. But at best, you could see perhaps valid reasoning here for protection for access to essential services, like being able to go into a grocery store. But again, when there's a health safety concern it wouldn't be that unvaccinated couldn't enter; it would be that different precautions could apply to unvaccinated in order for them to enter. Anyway, then we get back to you not having an inherent right to board a privately owned cruise ship.

Bids on my Anthem cruise opened on June 17th for a Aug 1st sailing. Given the ship is operating at 50% capacity I figured I'd have a decent chance of snagging a JS and was indeed successful with the minimum bid amount (£125 per person) Regards Neil

Royal Caribbean is starting to get their act together identifying the allowable COVID tests. Finally. Where Do I Take A RT-PCR Test And Submit The Results Before Cruising? | Royal Caribbean Cruises They actually refer to the complete list of FDA approved tests, too: In Vitro Diagnostics EUAs - Molecular Diagnostic Tests for SARS-CoV-2 | FDA And an important addition is the use of home tests as long as they are supervised. This basically makes 15-minute tests accessible to anybody, anywhere as long as they can do a video conference online and order the necessary test in advance to have on hand when the test has to be performed. One of the first in this category is Abbott's BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag At-Home Test. Abbott’s BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag At-Home Test Kit 6 Pack (emed.com) Travelers can now buy CDC-approved at-home COVID-19 tests for just $50 (thepointsguy.com)

So, light breakfast before heading to the beach club?

Welcome to the DRAMA FREE message boards!

Mine opened up exactly 90 days prior to sailing, so who knows these days.

The system is in service mode for the first week. We can't turn the water features on, but they are apparently on a timer because they just kicked on by themselves. The water was a lot more green initially than we expected. The pool chemical guy said that was just our tap water here in North Texas, and as you can see, it has really cleared up. There are a few things still left that need to be addressed in addition to the sprinkler and sod repair which normally take place at this time in the process. The biggest issue is that the deck is still torn up around the firepit, and the edges of it still need to be ground. After all the problems we've had, I hope we use the heck out of it this fall and winter! We can get in the water though, so it feels like the project is complete. Thanks for following along in this journey. Fortunately there are real cruise blogs to read now!

One tip for courtesy to others, please don't book a show "just in case" then not show up. Some shows on Adventure were "sold out" yet there were plenty of empty seats

@Matt is correct here - it takes me back to the old law school days but there is a distinct difference between a sweepstakes and a raffle but regardless, there's always a lot of legal work that goes into any big company doing a giveaway of any kind. I signed up, there was a lot of boilerplate, running anything nationwide runs into a lot of issues with varying state regulation but I thought this was a good idea, as I did when we discussed the initial volunteering a while back. Gives Royal a lot of free advertising across social media, the travel industry outlets give them various write ups, and the all important actual word of mouth. Gives RC more data on potential customers, we get excited about cruising even more and some of us will even get to go. Makes sense to me. Like others have said the last minute nature of the travel/airfare etc was probably keeping a lot of folks out of the individual invites, this way folks get three options depending on their schedule and where they live - win/win in my book. Like everything else the last year and a half, learning as we go....

Hi @Kamehameah, I'm sure you're much more IT savvy than I am but whenever I do anything on Royal's website I use an incognito browser. You probably tried that already but just in case you didn't. The other potential stumbling block I can see is that you're on the Rome departure. This cruise is doing what's called "interporting" which means there are passengers starting and ending their cruises in two different ports, in this case Rome and Barcelona. When a cruise interports, one departure port is designated as the home, or main, port and for Harmony that is Barcelona. Royal's IT programme does not handle interporting well and this has been known in the past to cause issues for guests who are boarding at the "secondary" port, so it is possible that this is what is causing your problem. I am also sailing on Harmony in September, but from Barcelona, and was able to check in without any issues. Note also that the photos are not necessary to complete check in; if you don't include them the check in staff at port will take them. They often take new photos even for guests who did include them during online check in. I have never bothered to upload photos during check in. I hope you are able to get it all sorted.

I'm laughing at Room Stewart. But this is a great idea!

Mr Genie, I only have two wishes, I don't even need three: Wish #1: That test cruise wins were transferable Wish #2: That I were @Matt's BFF

Anyone get this email yet? Some folks on CC have. Nothing yet for me but I’m only Platinum not Pinnacle. ?

Yes, milkshakes under beverage package.

It's definitely a PR move. Plus I'm sure the huge majority of those that signed up over the summer never were serious about committing to what a test cruise actually meant (short term notice, CSO requirements, and the fact it's a "working" cruise, not a free vacation). The sweepstakes is a way to get those serious (or, mostly serious) about actually going on a test cruise

There are no “dumb” questions here and I think you will find these folks both helpful and gracious. You should make it a priority to book your specialty dinning as soon as possible once onboard. Basically as you choose your desired dining place and time there will be options on availability and time slots. You will find they will be very accommodating and work with you but I’m not aware if any guaranteed reservations. You will have a complimentary dining reservation for your first night onboard which you can change if it’s not to your liking. I think it will be easier than you think, so enjoy your first cruise, the Harmony is an amazing ship, and WELCOME to our message boards. ?

Humans adapt. And we'll adapt to living with COVID too. If the disease could be decoupled from politics, we'd be back to normal ops.

Hi @Leikela, I’ve booked a GLS in November on QoTS and it will be my first time on Star Class as well! So excited for us both and would appreciate it if you could share on your Star experience. We’re celebrating a birthday onboard and was thinking of getting the Genie to decorate the suite and send a cake.

Looks like our decision to stay on this cruise might be paying off... Announcements were made last night on restaurants in Singapore being allowed to resume operations from 18 Aug and dine in is allowed for those who are vax, in groups of up to 5. So based on earlier experiences, RC typically follows the local rule and that would likely mean they too would open their restaurants and apply the same rules..at the very least, they have up the cruise capacity from 25% to 50% again. So hopefully economies of scale would allow them to open up their menus again.. Waiting to see if RC makes an update soon or if we hear anything more... Still no sound from our Genie.. 26 days out but I reckon any day now after this round of announcements dropped last evening?

The pool took 25 hours to fill. They came to turn on the pump yesterday afternoon and unfortunately said they were going to have to add more chemicals this morning. So we waited. They were here at 9am, and we were cleared to get in the water at 10am. We have our own Perfect Day (North Texas).

My update today- my daughter's passport came, took less than 3 weeks. We paid for expedited, I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't.

That's just a form email/letter from Royal's marketing department hoping it will entice you to call and book cruises. I get them occasionally. I've never been "assigned" to the same "person" twice so I'd say it means nothing. At least when "Hi, this is Rachel from Dealer Services" calls, it's always Rachel. It's comforting to know she's persistent and really wants to talk to me about my car's warranty.

Well firetruck. Looks like I didn't luck out.

I hate hearing that. It's a training issue for the technicians. For screening purposes, there is no need to penetrate any deeper than mid-nasal and anterior nasal is good enough. A technician that is inserting a swab beyond mid-turbinate on a child who is clearly freighted by all this is just sadistic. An adult or teen who is unlikely to be traumatized, fine. A young child, no way. My advice is to politely ask which collection technique is going to be used for a child under say, 8, that is a bit frightened by all this and ask that it be collected by anterior nasal swab. If that doesn't happen, don't make a scene at the collection point. Ask to speak to one of the medical doctors on board and voice your concerns about collection techniques being utilized for young children. It may not help your situation but it will help others after you.

Just to add to the previous posters' answers, you can have a look at the menus for the specialty restaurants beforehand in both the cruise planner and the app to get an idea of which ones you would most like to do. Then draw up a plan for your desired restaurants, times and days and take it with you. It will make the whole reservations process much quicker if you have your list to hand. Do have an alternative so you can flexible if a particular restaurant is not available for the day/time you want it. For example, we once wanted a particular restaurant one night when they were not taking reservations because there was an event, so we had to switch. Once your reservations have been made they should show up in the app, which is a helpful reminder if you forget where you've booked for a particular evening. Bear in mind that you can eat at any given restaurant more than once and you can skip others completely if the food they serve is not to your liking. You're not obliged to go to every single one. Sometimes too you may be able to switch your booking at the last minute, if you change your mind about that evening's plans, so it's always worth asking. And, lastly, you can still eat in the main dining room (commonly abbreviated to MDR here on the boards) if you wish, for example if you spot something on the menu that you particularly like. There is no charge for this as it is where the meals included with your cruise fare are served.

You should go to a specialty restaurant or a kiosk in the Promenade and make your reservations once you get onboard. I believe they make a courtesy reservation for the first day only and they choose the restaurant. However you do not have to keep that reservation. You can only secure reservations based on space available, so it is first come first serve when making the reservations.

As I am about to finish my first cruise onboard Odyssey Of The Seas, in today's vlog I show you some of the new features onboard Royal Caribbean's brand new Quantum Ultra class ship.

This may be as good a place as any to post on the subject of being optimistic with regard to the cruise lines continuing to expand operations making more cabins available to the large number of people who want to take a vacation on a cruise ship. Let's start by stating that cruise ships have become, hands down, the safest travel and leisure activity among the many that are available. Demonstrably so. OK then, what else? Like Governor Desantis, who's getting hammered by his political opponents as new cases in FL break records on a daily basis while he is accused of down-playing it, the numbers will start to decline at some point in the near future - days or weeks, not months. As well, when the press screams, 16,000 NEW CASES BREAKS RECORDS, that headline fails to provide any context. One of the most important is that, besides almost all of the new cases are among the un-vaccinated, 98% of them are under 60. The mean age of newly infected is 39 (the range is 12-47). As Desantis put it, Would you rather have 500 over 65s infected or 5000 under 60s? The point is obvious. 85% of over 65s are vaccinated in FL and the risk of serious illness among the younger cohort pales in comparison to that of the older one. Silverl ining? Vax rates in FL are up sharply. I'm not dismissing the downsides of the current increase in new case numbers and % positivity. But, I reject the media hysteria. It's counterproductive to the goal of moving us closer to learning to manage this thing without imposing unnecessary mitigation and mobility restrictions. There's a risk to cruising given the hysteria. I don't think it's great in the US mainly because of what appears to be the likelihood that FL is going to prevail in it's filing v. Bacerra and Walensky. I think both the CDC and European governments in countries where tourism is an important industry feel shutting it down doesn't offer a great deal of PH benefit and has significant costs given how stunningly effective lines operating there have managed COVID for going on close to a year now.

If you download the Royal Caribbean app you can look at the menus in the app for Allure. To find them on the select your sailing screen you scroll all the way to the end and click on more details on the ships we support. You can select Allure there and pick a sailing to see the menus. I would pick closer-in dates as they are most likely to have the menus populated.

Very nice rundown and positive outlook. Looking forward to seeing more of your reviews. Thanks for taking the time to document the nuances.

Seconding using the incognito browser for Royal.

Super excited for you @DominicGCAU! Thanks to the advice from @WAAAYTOOO and some others in the Blog, I’ve booked a GLS on Deck 10 in the middle as well, cruising in early November on Quantum of the Seas (Singapore). Will share my experience after my cruise (or maybe a live update if I’m up to it). I had initially booked a corner GLS on Deck 10 cos of the 3 balconies and of course the cute hanging chair on the balconies. After realising the difference in footage and configuration between corner and middle GLS, I called the hotline and changed out to the middle GLS. Just sharing the experience of a friend who was on Star Class on Quantum of the Seas in May 2021 - he ordered 10 glasses of champagne into his GLS (there were only 2 of them in the suite) each night and the Genie obliged! My family is not much of a drinker but since it’s included in the cruise fare, we may order a bubbly or two just for the fun of it ?

Some might call it a heat wave; it's really just how August goes around here. To be honest we're in better shape this year than most. We usually have nothing but 100+ degree days most of July and August, but we've only been in the upper 90's.

It's been a delight to follow along, thank you! And it's beautiful!

Would love to see pics of y’all enjoying the pool after all the drama of construction

A lot of Airports are setting up testing. DFW airport (where I fly out of) contracted with a lab company and they provide the range of testing at a few locations pre/post security. For my Celebrity cruise this month, where the 72 hours before embarkation was specified, I am going to the airport 2 days early (about 70 hours before sail-away) and getting an antigen test done at the pre-security testing facility. It was $79, results in an hour, and I have the next two days to try a second test, If i got a positive to either determine if it was false, or if it was real.

For vaccines, the difference between Florida and NY state is only 6-7% in terms of initiating vaccination. That's why it's particularly troubling for me to read stories or opinions of people from largely blue states pointing smugly at FL and saying essentially that'll never happen here, because... reasons. It's also troubling to see the vax pass developments in NYC. To be clear, I think that's a world apart from cruises as you already have to prove medical fitness and establish that you are who you say you are to travel internationally, but I understand the worry that a level of surveillance like this is creeping into our everyday lives in ways that will be difficult to reverse. I personally am glad this wave came when it did. It will be hard to justify lockdowns anywhere once Florida and the rest of the South is on the other side of the wave with very few changes to human behavior. Had the wave come in the northeast first and lined up more with some of the other expectations around flu season, I think we could have perpetuated the almost delusional stimulus-response mechanism of masks-peak effect for a bit longer. And of course, all of this is biased by my optimism that the situation in FL is decelerating when that may very well not be true. All of that to say. there really isn't that much that separates the average Floridian from the average New Yorker. That's part of why all of the ire in the media sent in one direction is gross. There's also no "magic" percentage of vaccination that can predict when we can remove restrictions and get back to normal. We just have no idea what to expect, and would be better served by a big dose of humility.

Finished our Antigen test, all negative, and the test took 25 minutes for an answer. Did not have to wait around, they called us. Scheduled on their app. Will get an "official" report from the clinic later this evening. Had to find a CVS that was giving the antigen test, all do not and no Walgreens in our area were. Now we are ready to fly and sail!

It's either. I've had several tests (all PCR) over the past year and I've never received anything other than an email stating positive or negative, so I don't know what else they could possibly ask for. I've never had access to any sort of paper report.

I made mention yesterday this ticks me off to no end. The whole reason I got vaccinated was to avoid this cluster. I work. My fiance'e works. Our kids work hard at school. We work hard. This new wrench in the works involves us giving up work to get tested. For her a few hours or a day. For our kids it will be having to get out of school for the test during holiday school testing time. For me, it involves cancelling a week long fishing charter for my guests so I can get tested in the window. Otherwise I would have come in from the carter and gone to the ship the next morn. That's huge $$$$$ .... We are slated for 4 cruises with 4 of us each trip. $600 just in test fees per trip ($2400 total). Wife 4 days work. For me??? 4 weeks pay and 4 weeks revenues to my business or bring in a hired captain at $400 a day times 28 days! Thats big... They were making tests available to the non vaccers at the port (at cost) . I see nothing like that for those of us who did as asked and got the vac... ??? Any ideas if somewhere in or near the ports (Miami, Canaveral, Lauderdale) we can get done?

This one is a dead horse and has been discussed and confirmed to death. ? Count backwards. Think of it like this... Saturday - the day you need the results, typically the sailing day, Day 0 Friday - 1 day before the day you need the results, Day 1 Thursday - 2 days before the day you need the results, Day 2 Wednesday, 3 days before the day you need the results, Day 3 Tuesday, 4 days before the day you need the results, Day 4 Monday, 5 days before the day you need the results, Day 5 Even Royal Caribbean covers it in the FAQ. Where Do I Take A RT-PCR Test And Submit The Results Before Cruising? | Royal Caribbean Cruises

Test day is day zero. embarkation day must be day 1, 2, or 3

Step 1 - Got it Step 2 and 3 will take some people 15 minutes. I'd hate to be #3 in line. For the moment Royal is going with a crew member assist at the Freestyle machines.

Imagine the horror of noticing your minor daughters passport expired about 5 days before sailing? That was us in 2015, as we thought we had another 5 years but minors expired in 5 not 10 years. For this situation I was lucky enough that I work in NYC. About $500 or $600 later I had a renewed passport in my hand the following day using a service that somehow was able to turn it around super quick. Given the environment unlikely such a service e exists today. Good luck.

I've pretty much decided that if this proceeds I'm not going to live blog it. There is too much riding on this for the cruise line. Posting an errant photo or comment could cause the CDC to pause or fail the simulation cruise. Once it's known the certificate to sail has been awarded I'll consider posting about the experience, assuming I am selected to go forward.